Try as I may, staying caught up on a blog ain’t easy. Wish I was better at it.
Nonetheless on what should seem like a low key mid July weekend, there was an abundance of MTB bike races… only too close together and on the same days! Ugh! Too bad as events this far north (in Ashland & Duluth) could likely have drawn bigger numbers if set on different days or weekends.
What’s been an almost uninterrupted event for the past 20 yrs, held the 3rd weekend of every July, is the annual Ashland Bay Days festival. With it’s Off Road Bike Race – this year being renamed Ashland MudRutters, brought for by the same folks that put on the Ashland BayCross cyclo-cross races in October.
It’s one of those nice community races – and for myself after logging miles around the Midwest tracking down MT Bike races month after month -- it’s always great to have one in your hometown. Folks of all calibers show up – it’s nice to see everyone in the community trying, as well as the competition that comes in from the surrounding areas.
Back in ’01 when I first got into any form of competitive riding it was one of my first races. I remember placing 18th and thinking how I wanted to do so much better. It wasn’t that I was some kind of slouch, but it’d been 5 or 6 yrs since I was a competitive track & cross country runner and having suffered a very stubborn stress fracture in my ankle that vaporized several years of my life endurance activities. From that point in ‘01 I started my climb & journey in cycling & mtb racing. A year later in ’02 I finished 6th place & cut 6 minutes off my time.
It’s always been a race that I looked forward to. In a flash forward, after several years of near misses & untimely racing mistakes, I finally pulled out a victory in ’06. In ’07, a ringer of sorts, Scott Chapin of Hayward, shows up (on time that year) and makes it a really hard fast race, pulling away in the early miles on some inclines & puts down a good race winning leaving me back some 50 seconds. ’08 looking for a rematch & assuming Scottie among others may show up – the event lost it’s main contributor/sponsor & was shelved. Fortunately, this year ‘09 that all turned around as Paul Belknap & Sara Hudson took over, did a ton of work, got a lot of people involved and put on a really great race. From the planning, to the volunteers, to the awards it was all very nicely done.
The race itself starts on the west end of Ashland in Prentice Park, wraps itself around the southern outskirts of town & squirms back into the heart of the city for the finish. Having won in the past, I was equally happy volunteering or participating. The biggest goal I wanted to see was to have a good event & help in any way possible. Paul said he had adequate volunteers & getting race participants was the objective… so gee, twist my arm, make me race . The great part about it comes back to what I said earlier; you get to see & race against very good riders from both inside & outside the area that don’t have the time or desire to race the more distant events. (And in Ashland, everything seems to be at a significant distance).
Having pre-road the course, some of which actually utilizes the trails here on our property at Farm Road, I chose the SuperFly over the Trek Full suspension 69er, not so much for any other purpose than I wanted to get used to some racing miles on that bike before the Ore to Shore.
All this jibber-jabber and no race details? Ok, ok – so the start line has probably 4 or 5 guys capable of putting down some fast times & will make up the main competitive group, my 24-9 teammates Matt Hudson & Kelly McKnight, along with the Cable/Seeley/Hayward Toms – Meyer & Gaier (cool, that rhymes). Anyways, I’m feeling good, but taking absolutely nothing for granted. Matt & Kelly have knocked out huge miles so far and really improved over the past couple years, Tom Meyer has taken victory in just about every “short” MTB event he’s taken on & the more open MudRutters course favors his strengths. Gaier, well, he’s no slouch either and a really smooth rider.
At the start I figured to be content to sit behind whoever took off initially, at the “Goooo!” it was Hudson, the brute that he is. Riding good at about half mile in I felt it was a good time to take over and see what would happen & who would stay with me. Kinda just test the waters. I told Matt to hang on and then I went to the front. Not trying any big surge I went forward going steady, not knowing if a gap would happen or not. It’s at that point the race enters a ¼+ mile rutted up four wheeler trail, “pit of despair” and ends with an incline. To me it’s always a hard section, doesn’t look like it should be but it always feels that way. My eyes & attention focused on making it through cleanly I didn’t bother to look back until I reached the old railroad grade/corridor section. When I do I see a 20yard gap. Two thoughts cross my mind… Oh good, guess I gotta hit it know,… followed by an Oh shit, they’re going to work together & hang me out to dry. Which left me with no other option than…. I’d better make this hurt for everybody. So I tuck down as far as I could & TimeTrialed the remainder of the corridor section as much as the body would allow. Upon turning off that section & up another incline I looked back to see the gap got larger and continued to push my limits the first couple miles of the race.
It seemed to me at one point they re-grouped & were going to have a successful chase, but somehow the gap stayed the same or slower got larger. I kept wanting to get to the forested off road sections & to get out of sight (& hopefully out of mind). I couldn’t tell if it was Tom Meyer or Kelly McKnight that was leading their charge. Approximately half way through, the fear of getting caught began to fade & confidence that without mistake or mechanical this race could go pretty well. By the time we went around the back half of the course & past the water tower the lead was going past 40 seconds. I thought to myself -- do I enjoy the rest of the race or kept pushing it. Well, I went for the desired positive training effect and kept pushing it for the most part.
At about 3 miles to go I reached the corner of our property & trails. At that point Kate, Marshall, Hope & Grace were perched out in & around the 15 foot tree stand taking some video, yelling & cheering. It was pretty neat. Marshall asking “Daddy, why are you in first?” as I sped by. What I’ve come to find out is 4 years olds do not run out of questions at anytime or anyplace.
It was even more fun speeding through our single track then normal especially when doing it under race conditions. When I popped out back on Farm Rd, I knew if I could hold it together things would be fine, but I was tensed up & surprised for a moment to see one of the guys still within sight before reaching the Elementary school. I thought “Gesh, how did that happen?” but in actuality it was still pretty much the same time/distance as it had been for awhile – open section can sometimes create a good old optical illusion.
Racing down the closed off streets & through RailYard park let me cruise into the finish. Interestingly enough it was Kelly McKnight that next came through just over a minute back followed pretty closely by Tom Meyer. I had thought it was the other way around. Matt Hudson apparently hadn’t been feeling well and faded earlier in the race finishing 5th, but Tom Gaier put in a good effort on the day finishing 4th (even if he did take abit of shortcut ). Good job of racing by everyone.
Interestingly enough, I couldn’t help but check back against the ’07 finish & finishing times because of the course similarities. One of the few course you can do a reasonable comparison. The ’09 course was arguably longer, if not it certainly had a replacement section of a couple hundred yards that were more challenging. Yet, despite all that the four top finishers in ’09 had faster times than my second place finish in ’07. Kelly was within 11 seconds of Scottie “superman” Chapin winning time in ’07 and I best Scottie’s time by over a minute. So I think everyone can feel pretty dang good about how the increased caliber of racing around here is coming along.
That all said, the gathering afterwards was a great time, very nice plaque awards for 1st thru 3rd place overall, as well as age group awards. In the years to come according to Paul they’re looking to add a second longer race and make things even bigger & better. It’s a good time and if you missed it before consider putting it on your calendar in the future.
Up next, “What have a I lost my mind?” 24 hour racing at 9 Mile forest in Wausau Sat/Sun 24th-25th….. oh boy, that’s going be interesting!
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